To appeal to today’s consumers, KFC is prioritizing boneless chicken on its menu, expanding its sauce choices, and designing its restaurants to capture customers’ attention.
Recently, yum brand The sector faces strong competition from both emerging chicken chains and traditional giants. mcdonalds They’re betting big on chicken’s growing global popularity. KFC claims to have invented the chicken quick-service restaurant category, but being first isn’t the same as being number one, especially in the U.S., where sales have slumped in recent years.
“In an increasingly crowded category, we have a clear opportunity to set the standard for modern chicken in QSRs,” KFC Global CEO Scott Mezvinsky said Monday in a statement announcing the chain’s “next chapter.”
tenders and drinks
KFC’s “next chapter” will focus on boneless menu items, including an improved version of chicken tenders.
Source: KFC
The strategy focuses on what KFC calls a “bold menu makeover.”
As part of this, the chain plans to expand its boneless chicken options and improve existing chicken breast recipes.
“We’re moving from bone-in chicken to increasingly boneless chicken,” Christophe Poirier, KFC’s chief concept officer, told CNBC.
“We are evolving our bids to ensure we get the biggest, juiciest, crispiest, non-negotiable,” he added.
KFC is also expanding its available sauces to appeal to consumers who like to dip, dip or drizzle their chicken tenders. The chain’s “Global Sauce Pantry” features more than 20 sauces that combine classics with new flavors, like Chimichurri Ranch. (Meanwhile, KFC’s spinoff restaurant chain, Saucy, which focuses on tenders and sauces, has grown to nearly a dozen locations in Florida.)
This month, restaurants across the UK and Ireland will begin rolling out new tenders and nine new sauces. Australia and the United States will follow later this summer, with further global market expansion expected throughout the rest of the year.
KFC will also launch a menu line called “Dunked,” featuring tenders, wings and sandwiches dipped in sauce. This menu item is already available in South Africa and India.
Like many fast food restaurants, KFC is also expanding its drink selection, including Bobali freshers, sparkling lemonade, and iced coffee, under a new sub-brand called Kwench by KFC. Quench drinks are already available in some restaurants in Ireland and the UK, while Australia and Canada will add them to their permanent menus this year.
Poirier said the chain’s agile supply chain “allows us to quickly cascade many of the initiatives that we are leading centrally.”
The chain’s own restaurants will also look different as it rolls out new store designs. An “open concept” restaurant will open in McKinney, Texas this summer. An “immersive” two-story location is set to open in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in September.
Poirier compared the experience of visiting the soon-to-open “immersive” restaurant to attending a concert at the Sphere in Las Vegas. KFC designed its stores to take diners’ attention away from their phones and focus on the in-person experience.
Fresh branding is also part of the strategy. The chain’s new logo features the Colonel Sanders mascot on either side of “KFC,” which resembles the famous chicken bucket shape. The chain said KFC’s buckets will be “revamped,” while Saunders will undergo a “subtle evolution.”
assignment
A rendering of KFC’s new restaurant design pays homage to the chain’s iconic bucket and mascot, Colonel Sanders.
Source: KFC
With over 34,000 stores worldwide, KFC is one of the world’s largest restaurant chains. The company is also an important part of Yum’s portfolio, especially as its parent company seeks to sell its struggling sister chain Pizza Hut.
But KFC has its own challenges.
In the United States, the chain has been ceding market share to new entrants like Raising Cane for years. In 2021, KFC accounted for 16% of the U.S. market share for chicken quick-service restaurants, ranking second behind Chick-fil-A, according to Barclays. By 2024, its market share had fallen to 9.4%, with Popeyes and Raising Cane’s leapfrogging KFC, dropping the chain to fourth place.
Outside the US, KFC has been more successful. Yum sees KFC International as one of its two “growth engines” alongside top performer Taco Bell.
In its most recent quarter, KFC reported a 2% increase in same-store sales. Yum no longer shares same-store sales for the chain’s domestic operations, suggesting the division is not considered important to the company’s broader results. China and Europe are KFC’s two largest regions for system sales, with the United States in third place.
More than a year ago, Yum named Katherine Tan Gillespie as KFC’s new U.S. president in a bid to turn around its struggling U.S. business. So far, her rebuilding efforts include providing better value food and bringing back Colonel Sanders.
KFC in the U.S. has seen same-store sales increase over the past three quarters, Tan Gillespie told industry journal Restaurant Business earlier this month.
